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How the yellow wallpaper subverts gender norms
How the yellow wallpaper subverts gender norms
How the yellow wallpaper subverts gender norms
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In Arthur Miller's, “Death of a Salesman” and Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s, “The Yellow-Wallpaper” both struggle to maintain their own individual expectations in companion with Societies' input. Death of a salesman focused on how financial success plagues the family as they fail to meet the standards of the American Dream. The Yellow-Wallpaper focused on how society’s view of gender inhibits the narrators in functioning beyond her basic duties. In, “Death of Salesman”, The society’s concept of the American Dream plagues the protagonist, Willie Lowman, through out the play. Society's standard of the financial success is owning your own house, being in control of a company and having a lovely family. The expectation of this “Dream” conflicts with Willie Lowman's reality. He had trouble maintaining their financially stability in how Willie sold their, “diamond watch fob?” This watch was special as it was from, “ Ben came from Africa that time? Didn’t he give me a watch fob with a diamond in it?”. A sign of financial instability is selling off prized possessions. This is relevant as Willie admire Ben for, “Why, boys, when I was seventeen I walked into jungle and when I was twenty-one I walked out. [He laughs] and by God I was rich!” Willie remarks to the boys that, “You see what I been talking about? The …show more content…
”. It mirrors how society use to view woman as “stock animal” and only meant for breeding. The Yellow-Wallpaper exhibits how society's expectation can stifle and suffocate a person base upon her gender. It shows how the individual suffers underneath the weight of Societies expectation. Both works demonstrates how individual conflict with the Society expectation of a happy life. In the end, The individual must find freedom and personal happiness above the expectation of society. The individual person must do what is best for them and not what society expects them to
The struggle between happiness and society shows a society where true happiness has been forfeited to form a perfect order.
During this time period women did not encompass the same rights as their male counterparts, nor where they encouraged to participate in the same activities as they. Gillman describes the yellow wallpaper to the readers as a rationalization of what it means to be a woman during this time period. Women were expected to be child-like and fragile as noted, within the text, “What is it child(Gilman, 1998)?” The color yellow is often associated with sickness; in Gilman’s case her sudden illness refers to oppression. She notes as the story, progresses the wallpaper makes her feel sick. Gilman notes, “I never saw a worse paper in my life,” as a symbol in which refers to the restrictions and norms society places on women. Within her literature she addresses restrictions placed on women. Gilman states, “The color is hideous enough, and unreliable enough, and infuriating enough, but the pattern is torturing.” Meaning, she believed men denying women the right to equality was absurd, and when they did grant women’s freedom it was not equivalent rather a “slap in the face [it knocks] you down and tramples you (Gilman, 1998).” Through her essay she consistently refers to a figure behind the wallpaper. “The faint figure behind seemed to shake the pattern, just as if she wanted to get out (Gilman, 1998).” Meaning, women during this time period seek to feel free from oppression. The women behind the wallpaper represents the need to speak out, “you have to creep on the ground, and everything is green instead of yellow (Gilman,1998).” Creeping placed significance on the experience of being a woman in regards to, how they should think, feel, act, dress, and express themselves. Gilman notes, “And I 've pulled off most of the paper, so you can 't put me back! " The author used this quote to signify, the woman realized she was
American Literature has been said to be timeless and relatable with its use of “American values and the American Dream of material success.” American Literature reflects the differences between the upper and lower class. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman contribute to the meaning of American literature, with the incorporation of the American dream and female characters. In the desperate chase for the American dream, one can become corrupted and egocentric. The aspects of the novel The Great Gatsby and the play Death of a Salesman demonstrate the slow emotional and social downfall of the protagonists Jay Gatsby and Willy Loman with reference to the American dream and female characters such as Daisy
In the 19th century, women were not seen in society as being an equal to men. Men were responsible for providing and taking care of the family while their wives stayed at home not allowed leaving without their husbands. In The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman writes about a woman named Jane who is trapped by society’s cage and tries to find herself. Throughout the story, the theme of self-discovery is developed through the symbols of the nursery, the journal and the wallpaper.
In society, there has always been a gap between men and women. Women are generally expected to be homebodies, and seen as inferior to their husbands. The man is always correct, as he is more educated, and a woman must respect the man as they provide for the woman’s life. During the Victorian Era, women were very accommodating to fit the “house wife” stereotype. Women were to be a representation of love, purity and family; abandoning this stereotype would be seen as churlish living and a depredation of family status. Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story "The Yellow Wallpaper" and Henry Isben’s play A Doll's House depict women in the Victorian Era who were very much menial to their husbands. Nora Helmer, the protagonist in A Doll’s House and the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper” both prove that living in complete inferiority to others is unhealthy as one must live for them self. However, attempts to obtain such desired freedom during the Victorian Era only end in complications.
In ' 'Death of a Salesman ' ' by Arthur Miller and ' 'The Great Gatsby ' ' by F. Scott Fitzgerald we are presented with the tragedy of ruined idealism. Willy Loman 's and Jay Gatsby 's dreams are crushed because of their tremendous desire to be meaningful and significant. However, their social status, lineage, and ability to accept reality are incompatible with their dreams. Miller provides the facts that capitalism will not give a chance to ordinary people to get the American dream, and contrary Fitzgerald designates that achievement of the American dream will not bring happiness.
“Too Terribly Good to Be Printed”: Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper” by Conrad Shumaker was written in 1985. When the original “Yellow Wallpaper” was created it was during the Victorian Era also the beginning of the Feminist Movement. Shumaker’s “Too Terribly Good to Be Printed” proves that the audiences’ intake of the story is merely based off of society’s standards at the time. This story emphasizes that the pedestal women are held on will always be over powered by society because of how dominate male roles are. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” Shumaker explains that gender roles are heavily influenced by how the way humans think. Males tend to focus more on facts and reality where as women like to use imagination and creativity. The author is able to prove this theory correct because the narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” expresses herself with her imagination of a non-living item (the wallpaper) and John her husband takes her thoughts for insanity. Shumaker gets the readers to realize that John himself isn’t cruel to his wife but it is the influence of the society. If having an imagination wasn’t such a feminine thing to do, then the wives of that century wouldn’t have gone through so much. This story brings to light that there is more to “The Yellow Wallpaper” than a husband controlling
Many different depictions of gender roles exist in all times throughout the history of American culture and society. Some are well received and some are not. When pitted against each other for all intents and purposes of opposition, the portrayal of the aspects and common traits of masculinity and femininity are separated in a normal manner. However, when one gender expects the other to do its part and they are not satisfied with the results and demand more, things can shift from normal to extreme fairly quickly. This demand is more commonly attributed by the men within literary works. Examples of this can be seen in Tennessee Williams' “A Streetcar Named Desire”, where Stella is constantly being pushed around and being abused by her drunken husband Stanley, and also in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's “The Yellow Wallpaper”, where the female narrator is claimed unfit by her husband as she suffers from a sort of depression, and is generally looked down on for other reasons.
“The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlotte Perkins-Gilman explores the oppression of women in the nineteenth century and the constant limitation of their freedom, which many times led to their confinement. The short story illustrates male superiority and the restriction of a woman’s choice regarding her own life. The author’s diction created a horrific and creepy tone to illustrate the supernatural elements that serve as metaphors to disguise the true meaning of the story. Through the use of imagery, the reader can see that the narrator is living within a social class, so even though the author is trying to create a universal voice for all women that have been similar situations, it is not possible. This is not possible because there are many
Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, portrays the cost of selling oneself to the American Dream. Willy Loman, the central character, is madly determined to achieve affluence that he overlooks the value of his family and himself in the process. He instills in his sons, Biff and Happy Loman, that being charismatic will hand them a prosperous lifestyle. Happy trusts in his father’s ideology while Biff’s beliefs contradict them. Biff deems that success is a product of happiness and contentment, not a paycheck. Out of all the sociological theories, social conflict best emphasizes the author’s perspective of how conflict, through class and family, can deteriorate the American dream. By analyzing the play’s themes- social class and family- through the sociological perspectives: structural-functional, social conflict, and symbolic interactionist, we can predict what drives these characters to behave and perceive things the way they do.
Arthur Miller’s, Death of a Salesman is undeniably a masculine focused play as it reveals a man’s struggle to achieve success. However, through careful examination, many literary scholars have found it to be the women in these men’s lives that have the most impact on their accomplishments. As exemplified through the male and female relationships in Death of a Salesman, man’s success is heavily influenced by a women's indirect authority.
In conclusion, this story, “The Yellow Wall-Paper”, provided a great social and psychological criticism. It shows the reader how women have progressed so far in the recent years. This woman was the start of many, which finally led to making men and woman more equal, and this is the society that this woman wanted.
Gender roles seem to be as old as time and have undergone constant, but sometime subtle, revisions throughout generations. Gender roles can be defined as the expectations for the behaviors, duties and attitudes of male and female members of a society, by that society. The story, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” is a great example of this. There are clear divisions between genders. The story takes place in the late nineteenth century where a rigid distinction between the domestic role of women and the active working role of men exists (“Sparknotes”). The protagonist and female antagonists of the story exemplify the women of their time; trapped in a submissive, controlled, and isolated domestic sphere, where they are treated as fragile and unstable children while the men dominate the public working sphere.
In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, women play a crucial role in Willy’s life and in the lives of the other characters. While the roles themselves have not changed since the play was written, society’s opinion of these roles has changed greatly. When it was written, Miller’s representation of Linda was seen as a portrait of the ideal American wife. She was a nurturing wife and mother, loyal to her family, and almost overly supportive of her pitiful husband Willy. The other women in the play, however, were seen as “working women,” or women who care about money as opposed to emotional support.
Willy’s flaws could be seen as his way to achieve success for his family. Willy considers popular opinion and personal integrity to be very important, though it backfired on him. For example, being faithful to his wife and not lying to his family; but that is irrelevant if no one knows. Neither “The Death of a Salesman” or “A Raisin in the Sun” state that having money is in itself a wrong, which in return allows for one to achieve the American dream. Rather, both stories show that a measure and value of a person must not be determined and judged by the size of their wallets, and must be separated from popular